LETTER FROM HON. HORACE MANN Washington , Jan 25, 1851, to Thomas H. Talbot, Esq.
“Your letter informs me that a meeting of persons, oppposed to the Fugitive Slave Act,’ is to be held at Winthrop on the 29th inst., and you do me the honor to ask my ‘opinion of that Act, and the duty of the people with respect to it.’ The law to which you refer is such a condensation of various iniquities, that it is impossible, within the brief compass of a letter suitable for such an occasion, to anyalyse it and lay open its manifold wickedness………….” if a law so abhorrent as this to every Patriot and Christian, so congenial to every sentiment in the Tyrant’s bosom, can stand upon the statute-book of the nation, and if the great heart of the people can be imbued with its spirit, then the true motto of this government will ever afterwards be ‘Slavery and Union’, one and inseparable, now and forever!”
Very truly your obedient servant, Horace Mann
(Liberator, February 14, 1851, pg 2)
